From New York Timesbestselling author Philip Kerr, the much-anticipated return of Bernie Gunther, our compromised former Berlin bull and unwilling SS officer. With his cover blown, he is waiting for the next move in the cat-and-mouse game that, even a decade after Germanys defeat, continues to shadow his life.
The French Riviera, 1956: The invitation to dinner was not unexpected, though neither was it welcome. Erich Mielke, deputy head of the East German Stasi, has turned up in Nice, and hes not on holiday. An old and dangerous adversary, Mielke is calling in a debt. He intends that Bernie go to London and, with the vial of Thallium he now pushes across the table, poison a female agent they both have had dealings with.
But chance intervenes in the form of Friedrich Korsch, an old Kripo comrade now working for Stasi and probably there to make sure Bernie gets the job done. Bernie bolts for the German border. Traveling by night, holed up during the day, Bernie has plenty of down time to recall the last time Korsch and he worked together.
It was the summer of 1939: At Hitlers mountaintop retreat in Obersalzberg, the body of a low-level bureaucrat has been found murdered. Bernie and Korsch are selected to run the case. They have one week to solve the murderHitler is due back then to celebrate his fiftieth birthday. Lucky Bernie: its his reward for being Kripos best homicide detective. He knows what a box hes in: millions have been spent to secure Obersalzberg. It would be a disaster if Hitler were to discover a shocking murder had been committed on the terrace of his own home. But the mountaintop is home to an elite Nazi community. It would be an even bigger disaster for Bernie if one of them was the murderer.
1939 and 1956: two different eras, seventeen years apart. And yet, not really apart, as the stunning climax will show when the two converge explosively.
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Review
*Praise for Prussian Blue
Bernie Gunthersly, subversive, sardonic, and occasionally hilariousis one of the greatest anti-heroes ever written, and as always he lights up this tough and unflinching novel. We're in good hands here.Lee Child
Once again Kerr leads us through the facts of history and the vagaries of human nature. His Bernie Gunther thinks hes seen it all. But he hasnt, and luckily, neither have we.Tom Hanks
"In Prussian Blue, Philip Kerr once more shows himself one of the greatest master story-tellers in English. The narrative is swift and adept, and so well-grounded in the history and custom of the period that the reader is totally immersed.Alan Furst
Kerr once again brilliantly uses a whodunit to bring to horrifying life the Nazi regimes corruption and brutality.Publishers Weekly (starred review)
In this skillfully plotted thriller, Kerr punctures the present with the painful past. Fans of the series wont be disappointed.Library Journal
Praise for Philip Kerr
Kerr vividly captures the excruciating moral ambiguity of Bernies position, driving home the point that cynicism is the only sane reaction for a man on the wrong side of history.Booklist***
The intricacies of the plot, partly based on Maughams history as a British spy in charge of a team of secret agents, make this one of Kerrs best technical efforts. But its the characterization of Maugham and the sound of his voice...that makes this novel memorable.*The New York Times Book Review
Readers who love hard-boiled heroes fell for Bernie Gunther back when he was a Berlin cop talking tough to Nazi thugs (March Violets, 1989), and we loved him just as much when he was forced to become an SS soldier on the Eastern Front (Field Gray, 2011). And yet, those whose own dark core runs deep may well love the postwar Bernie most of all, the Bernie whose cynicism has slowly morphed into black despair, like whiskey gradually eating its way through a defenseless liver....The Other Side of Silence is one of the best in a sterling series.Booklist (starred review)
Kerr carefully develops his plot, sense of place, and characterizations, enabling readers to imagine what it must have been like to have lived in a postwar morass of political and moral ambiguity. This is more than a crime or espionage novel; its a marvelous, hard-boiled political read.Library Journal (starred review)
Intricate enough to satisfy puzzle-minded readers...right out of the Agatha Christie playbook.The Washington Post
Blackmail, murder, deception, sexual shenanigans of every sort, and an undercurrent of black humor pervade Philip Kerrs 11th novel featuring the unsinkable German detective Bernie Gunther.Pittsburg Post Gazette
About the Author
Philip Kerr is the author of the widely acclaimed Bernie Gunther novels, including The Other Side of Silence, The Lady From Zagreb, A Man Without Breath, *Prague Fatale,*and Field Gray, all New York Times bestsellers. Field Gray and The Lady From Zagreb were both finalists for Edgar Award for Best Novel. Kerr has also been a finalist for the Shamus Award and the winner of the British Crime Writers Association Ellis Peters Historical Award. Under the name P. B. Kerr, he is the author of the much-loved young adult series Children of the Lamp. He lives in London.
From the Hardcover edition.